"..In its latest effort to impose control over freewheeling electronic commerce, China has announced rules banning online sales of imported music and videos and excluding foreign invested Internet companies from selling any audiovisual products.

The Ministry of Culture will require that all companies selling such products online get licenses by May 1, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. The report said the rules were intended to prevent sales of pirated, smuggled or ?otherwise illegal? music and video products and to help ?develop a healthy market.? Also prohibited are downloads using MP3 file format systems, it said.."